Obama’s Hidden Fees: When the president does it, it’s not a tax.

If Obama can deny that a charge is a tax even when it’s collected by the IRS and identified as a \”tax\” in the legislation creating it, he surely sees nothing tax-like in the money people are required to spend if they want to avoid that charge. Yet forcing people to buy insurance they do not want so their premiums can subsidize other people’s health care looks a lot like a tax-funded welfare program, even if the money does not flow through the public treasury.

Furthermore, when businesses buy government-required health insurance or pay a penalty for failing to do so, that money comes at the expense of employee compensation.

Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at Reason and a nationally syndicated columnist.